“The task of art today is to bring chaos into order.”  So said Theodor Adorno.  But was he right?

Adorno was a German philosopher and art theorist who believed that the purpose of art was not to reflect the beauty of creation or to express eternal truth—the purpose of art was to challenge and disrupt our accepted ideas of beauty and truth altogether: “to bring chaos into order.” 

Much of so-called art being made today draws on some of these ideas—creating pictures of nonsense, or taking random things or images and placing them in bizarre contexts.  You may be familiar with works like Jackson Pollock’s, huge canvasses with splattered paint everywhere; or you may have seen random objects, like a toilet or a bicycle wheel sitting in museums as though they are some kind of masterpiece. 

The trouble with this view of art is not that it lacks any insight or creativity—some of these works are quite novel and convey some interesting and challenging ideas.  The trouble is with the ideas themselves.

G.K Chesterton said “[a]rt, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.”  Those who believe that the purpose of art is chaos don’t just make some pretty weird stuff—they make it impossible to draw the line anywhere.  And that’s the whole point. 

Art isn’t just a creative process.  It is a reflection what you believe—about truth, about beauty, and yes, even about morality, about right and wrong.

So, when you look at a piece of art—or create one yourself—don’t just ask whether you like it; ask what it is saying, and then ask if what it is saying is true.  And sometimes, ask whether it is worthy of being called art in the first place.  After all, if everything is art, then nothing is.  We have to draw the line somewhere.

Have a wonderful day.